http://www.allochthonous.com/2009/03/16/the-names-of-places-part-two/ for readers and writers who care about place Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:44:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.allochthonous.com/2009/03/16/the-names-of-places-part-two/comment-page-1/#comment-843 Summer Wood Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:19:55 +0000 http://www.allochthonous.com/?p=238#comment-843 That's cool. I love the variety of sources for place info out there, from old maps to lists of abandoned post offices (and the letters they contain) to -- well, I just saw something on the USGS website (http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2164&from=rss) about archived records of bird observations collected over the years. If you have a thing for birds (as I do) you might want to check it out. Volunteers across the country have recorded bird sightings for decades, and the data that provides is useful not just in filling in a picture of the bird life of a region but, collectively, in showing specific evidence of climate change. That’s cool. I love the variety of sources for place info out there, from old maps to lists of abandoned post offices (and the letters they contain) to — well, I just saw something on the USGS website (http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2164&from=rss) about archived records of bird observations collected over the years. If you have a thing for birds (as I do) you might want to check it out. Volunteers across the country have recorded bird sightings for decades, and the data that provides is useful not just in filling in a picture of the bird life of a region but, collectively, in showing specific evidence of climate change.

]]> http://www.allochthonous.com/2009/03/16/the-names-of-places-part-two/comment-page-1/#comment-842 Maida Tilchen Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:09:25 +0000 http://www.allochthonous.com/?p=238#comment-842 uI'm at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and the other day the local historical society had a lecturer on the history of local post offices near here. It was based on the cancellation marks on envelopes going back to 1805. What he learned is that there were some post offices that shut down because the village was abandoned--a New England ghost town, basically, although in this climate nothing much remains but stone walls. In other cases, the name of the town was changed. So there are these envelopes he has collected that were hand-signed or stamped for places that no longer exist, and this may be the only evidence that they ever existed or had that name. It was quite poignant, especially because the letters are addressed to people and some have letters in them--a much more human souvenir than perhaps a tax roll or census might be. uI’m at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and the other day the local historical society had a lecturer on the history of local post offices near here. It was based on the cancellation marks on envelopes going back to 1805. What he learned is that there were some post offices that shut down because the village was abandoned–a New England ghost town, basically, although in this climate nothing much remains but stone walls. In other cases, the name of the town was changed. So there are these envelopes he has collected that were hand-signed or stamped for places that no longer exist, and this may be the only evidence that they ever existed or had that name. It was quite poignant, especially because the letters are addressed to people and some have letters in them–a much more human souvenir than perhaps a tax roll or census might be.

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